Every college town has a pizza place that becomes the pizza place, and in Salt Lake City, The Pie Pizzeria on 1320 East 200 South has held that position for over four decades. It opened in 1980 in the basement of a building just off the University of Utah campus, and it has not bothered reinventing itself since. That is the whole point.
You find the entrance down a flight of stairs, which is either charming or inconvenient depending on how much you’ve had to drink. The walls are covered floor to ceiling in graffiti, band stickers, and the accumulated debris of generations of students who decided to leave their mark. The lighting is low. The booths are worn. It smells exactly like it should.
On a Friday evening around 7 p.m., the place is loud and full. The crowd skews young — University of Utah students make up a big portion — but there are also longtime locals who’ve been coming since their own college years, plus families who wandered over from the nearby Research Park neighborhood. Nobody looks out of place. The Pie has always been the kind of room that accommodates everyone without trying to.
The pizza is the thick-crust, heavy-cheese style that was popular before anyone started arguing about Neapolitan authenticity. The House Combination — sausage, pepperoni, mushroom, olives, green pepper, onion — is the standard order, and it is genuinely good. They don’t skimp on toppings, the crust holds up, and the sauce has enough acid to cut through the weight of everything on top. A large runs around $22 to $26 depending on what you add. They also do calzones and hoagies, but the pizza is why you’re here.
The beer selection is straightforward Utah draft beer — local craft options from places like Uinta sit alongside the expected domestics. Prices are reasonable, and the pitchers are a better deal than buying by the glass if you’re with a group. Service is no-frills and quick enough given the volume they move on weekends.
The one thing that trips up first-timers is the wait on busy nights. They don’t take reservations. You put your name in, you grab a drink at the bar, you wait. On a slow Tuesday it might be 15 minutes; on a Friday or Saturday it can stretch to 45. Go earlier in the week if you want to actually have a conversation. Go on a Friday if you want the full experience.
There’s a second location on 3300 South in the Millcreek area, but the original is worth the trip. Something about the basement location, the graffiti, the noise — it has accumulated a specific character that the newer spot hasn’t quite replicated yet. Salt Lake City has added a lot of excellent restaurants over the past decade, and most of them are easier to describe. The Pie is harder to explain. You go once, you understand, and then you go back.
